Haha never thought about it not being mr ford actually

That could be pretty damn cool with the right lighting effect implemented!

I've already pondered how a fight between the power loader and the queen would look for the LE art, but if you saw the power loader from behind, and there was no issues with a face.

Thing is, we might get Sigourney, so right now I'm working on other things, because there just isn't any point in jumping the gun and working around something that might not be an issue.

Plastics are one of the next priorities, and as I said, the slingshots already have a plan, and there honestly aren't a lot of big plastics on this game, it's too full of ramps and mechs and toys. So the plastics probably aren't going to be real big showcase pieces for anything that's like a hero image.

We'll see, I just got the latest CAD files, haven't started to really work on them yet.

Wow, just listened to the part with Harrison Ford and the translite. That's a trip.

That's definitely not how it normally works.

I got to meet Mark Ritchie at Expo last year, he actually helped me wheel a Full Throttle across the hotel parking lot over to Twin Peaks. Even with an injured foot. Was just a really nice guy, enjoyed chatting with him.

It is my personal opinion that the world did not get enough pins made by Mark Ritchie and Brian Eddie. And now they work together, just not making pins!

The Moderators did that for us, and killed his secondary accounts, too.

Bahhahahahaha

Before the writer's strike, all the rights were negotiated as a package - sound clips, visuals, actor's images, everything. But then after that, everyone needed to get their cut so now all the pieces have to be negotiated separately.

That's how WMS got all that stuff and could do real artwork. That ship has sailed!

Crazy how calm/improved things are with one person missing.

he will be back. pulled the same stunts on klov with numerous accounts and finally got tired of all his user names being banned.
he is a poison.

back to alien, this thread is so

awsome_(resized).jpg

Ahhh...back to Alien!!!....

Yeah, think about STTNG. Could a pinball company even afford the custom voice acting anymore? It has so much from so many people.

Yes!

So the logo is just here for reference, but here is what the backglass looks like with the screen in it. So it will need a new design obviously. It needs to feel connected to the Standard, but I'm working now on how that will go.

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The 27"?

loader clipart surrounding screen

or...Throw on some Alien egg pods in the "distance" towards the bottom, green gas/fog surrounding the rest...or, alternatively, IF they approve, a bunch of crystal clear headshots of the cast.

Yes.

I wonder what the rights situation on it looks like, because I assume it'd be a prime candidate for remake after AFM, CftBL, MB and maybe Funhouse / CV.

Next year it's 30 years since the series debuted

Can you discuss where the Highway pinball logo is going to be on each of the 3 backglass types? No lcd, small lcd, large LCD?

For the option of no LCD, will it be on/in the translite art or below it between the speakers? Are you still planning on putting a bit of art between the speakers with the no LCD option?

It can be a real challenge to effectively design within a frame-shaped space like this with provided assets. Sometimes it can feel like forcing a square peg in a round hole. However in this case the Standard backglass design you inherited/created is already somewhat of frame.

Side note: I see you're an 'always-visible side dock' and 'Application Frame enabled' man. I'm an 'auto-hide bottom dock' and 'Application Frame disabled' man — those OS X Proxy Icons are too damn useful to let Adobe's custom UI steal them from me!

Anxious to see what you come up with!!!....as I anticipated, plenty of room for cool art AND screen....

Need to find the first sticker mod that converts the Aliens 'i' into the Alien 'i'.

It would be neat if there was some overlap of the art on top of the screen - understanding that all graphics on the screen would need to be designed with some overscan/headroom in mind. The idea being that the void isn't simply blank when the screen is off, but integrated into the art. Wish I was an artist so I could show what I'm imagining.

It is what it is really. I just don't subscribe to the worry about what it looks like when it's off. Games that are off are games that are off, they don't look all that great. The screen will be plenty alive when it's one.

I click and drag to my dock, I switch with my dock, and I have lots of apps running at all times that have vital notification badges. Hiding my dock would gain me some minimal pixels on a giant retina screen, and remove too many valuable targets and informations sources.

I also move my Photoshop instance back and forth between my retina screen and my Wacom Cintiq. Application frame makes that simple.

No difference between small LCD and no LCD with the placement, which has already been shown. I don't know yet on the big screen one, I doubt it will be all that different.

It's not that, I just like non-square bezels on arcade equipment, and overlays on screens.

Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah, I thought about it, it's really hard to give up information at the edges though, there's too much vital info there, and shrinking then screen isn't really ideal.

I'll keep it in mind though.

You had me at

you_had_me_at_(resized).jpg

I accidentally drain a thread about once a month on my cell phone just scrolling around... It happens.

I was checking out Dan Mumford's site. It may be too late but maybe you could have him draw something for the LE.

Get Away From Her, You Bitch
LV-426

Yeah, not happening, but those are definitely cool.

So, in regards to the LE, do you know yet which art is going to be different from the standard? Is it just going to be the backbox? Cab? Anything on the PF?

I figured. I just thought I'd share an awesome artist.

He does live in the UK so maybe Andrew would keep him in mind for something in the future.

Possible LE backglass illustration art

For the win, Jones

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+1. Looks pretty sweet. Not sure how willing someone with his portfolio would be likely to do the job for 'free' and then a cut of machine sales though, unless he's either a pinhead or very comfortable or both.

Think Aurich mentioned that's how he's being compensated.

Yeah I don't know if he'd be interested either but it's always good to be aware of artists that are close and interested in the same subjects. Mumford seems to be a fan of movies and games so it wouldn't be a stretch to see him do a pinball.

Be nice if he was, but a lot of illustrators are offered 'swag', merchandise or cuts all the time. Many doing it as a profession avoid it out of principle even if they like the project. They need to get paid, not have stacks of beer mats or t-shirts, or maybe get a royalty cheque in 2 years' time. Hopefully Alien's a hit and Heighway sell a ton, then they'll be able to actual pay up front. Aurich has a day job so I assume (or hope) he can take the risk of no reward and do it as a passion project. If this is your bread and butter, I suspect you want to get paid .... I'm sure news travelled about ZombieProphet's work and the following calamity with Zidware. No doubt that'd serve to make potential talents even more wary.

Yeah, not to get too deep into this, but I have a day job, I'm the creative director for Ars Technica, so I can "afford" to work on passion projects. This one is taking up a lot of my time though, it's a bit of a juggle. I manage.

The issue with artists like the one above isn't paying them though, it's getting it all past the licensing department. There are a ton of great artists out there, and definitely better illustrators than me. People who do that for their bread and butter. But if it's not part of the style guide a lot of companies are gonna say "nope".

I'm a designer, I specialize in a lot of things, but I'm also a true creative director, in the sense that I oversee a lot of things. I spend a lot of time in sales calls working out ad campaigns for companies like Lexus or LG etc. I design user interfaces. I worry about things like ad viewability.

That's why I got into doing pinball art, it's a nice change from my day job work. And why I'm not a fan of the whole license thing. I deal with big brands all the time as part of my job, I don't need lawyers in my hobby. So after Alien I'm done with licenses. Just too much stuff that doesn't have anything to do with the game, pinball, or fun.

But this is a killer license, so just gonna ride it all out until we've got a great game at the end.

You shouldn't tell anyone you aren't monetarily compensated. This hobby sees it as a negative. Both Lloyd and I can attest to that Much like you I can "afford" to help out without having to charge for assistance and actually think its a positive to lend capabilities gratis to new companies. Some don't see it that way.

Is Lloyd your driver?

chromas_driver_(resized).jpg

You also have to work on it all hours of the day or you're just treating it like a day job which is a negative. lol

I'm curious. When a guy does art prints of a licensed property, surely he has to have permission and approval as well, right? I just wonder what the difference is between art print and pinball playfield in the eyes of a licensor.

You're missing the other part of the conversation, I see a %, this isn't charity, but I don't get paid unless the game ships. Meaning that when it comes to "all in risk" I'm in a lot deeper than anyone preordering.

Honestly most of that stuff is just done under the radar. I would be surprised if even a good % is actually licensed. Some of it is for sure, but a lot isn't.

One thing if you're doing some art prints, another if you're building a pin. As we saw with Predator.

Somewhat off topic, OK maybe a lot; however, when I was a young kid one of my friends got a spot on a TV ad for a local gas station. This was back in the 60's when businesses gave away stuff. It was the summer and they were giving away a free beach ball with a fill-up. I'll never forget going over to his house and seeing probably 100 inflated beach balls and 50 cases of non inflated balls in the garage. At first, I thought that was really neat...but then I started wondering why they didn't deflate some of them so they could get their cars into the garage and besides why do you need 1000 beach balls. So, yeah, keep your t-shirts and coffee mugs, I want $ and a cut of the action

His name was Tom Brady, and he's been deflating those balls ever since.

Do you think if you pushed harder and had more time for back and forth or paid more for the license, they would grant the ability to do hand drawn art for a movie license? I'm just trying to get a sense of how this licensing business works. I'm sure money talks in most cases.

The license SPECIFICALLY doesn't allow for hand drawn art?

That would be strange....

No I imagine it is because hand drawn art tends to incorporate a lot of the artist's style that takes some leeway from the typical look of the license. The license holder already has art that the studio wants to represent to movie and it's assets. So I imagine it is much harder to get the okay for hand drawn custom art work for a movie license. Could be totally wrong but that would be my guess.

Agreed. That doesn't make any sense to me.